Former Riverbend prisoner testifies guards split open his head

Sep. 24, 2013

Written by

Quint Qualls

The Tennessean

A former Riverbend maximum security prisoner testified in U.S. District Court in Nashville on Tuesday that he was the victim of severe violence and significant injury at the hands of guards and other prison officials in 2010.

Todd White, 47, began to cry as he recalled his alleged beating before a federal jury. A video captured by Gregory “Country Joe” Garner, a guard and defendant in the case, showed five prison guards clad in black jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets entering the cell to extract White, who, according to his own testimony, was kneeling on the floor at the back of his cell. The guards came to get White from his cell after he threw something at a worker bringing him dinner, both sides say.

Five guards entered the cell, the first of whom wielded an electric shield reportedly used to shock White. Garner and Bryan Baldwin, the shift commander, were present at the extraction but did not directly participate in it.

White, who spent about seven years behind bars, testified extensively that he suffered punches, kicks, electric shocks and had his face shoved into the concrete, causing his forehead to be split from the hairline to the brow. The video is not clear as to which guards carried out the assault.

Chief Judge William J. Haynes Jr. refused to allow public disclosure of the crime of which White had been convicted and sent to prison.

Officer says he was punched in throat

During opening statements, defense attorney Jennifer Brenner asserted that the injuries, which amounted to excessive force, were caused by Joshua McCall, the officer in charge.

McCall, who is representing himself, said it was fellow guards Gaelan Doss and Sean Stewart who shoved White’s face into the wall and “slammed” him on the floor at the bottom of a staircase. McCall also said that White punched him in the throat during the incident.

“You’re going in behind a guy holding an electric shield and he punched you in the throat?” Benjamin Winters, attorney for White, asked McCall.

White says that Ricky Bell, warden of Riverbend Maximum Security Institute, also is legally responsible for the actions of the guards because they lacked proper training.

White is asking for $100,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in exemplary damages from each of the eight defendants. In addition, he is seeking future damages for any plastic surgery required to minimize the “ghastly disfiguring scar” now along his forehead.

Quint Qualls is a reporter with Seigenthaler News Service–MTSU. He can be reached at qqq1991@yahoo.com.